TGIF 7/29/22

It's good week/bad week time again. Let's dive in; I'll tell you which list I put them on, and you're welcome to chime in with your opinions.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke earlier this month in Rome  at a conference sponsored by the University of Notre Dame. During his keynote address, Alito was heard "mocking foreign leaders who lamented his opinion doing away with a half-century of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights in the US." 

He also spent time talking about religious liberty, saying

It is hard to convince people that religious liberty is worth defending if they don’t think that religion is a good thing that deserves protection...  Our hearts are restless until we rest in God. 

His personal beliefs are fine, but they're none of my business - not to mention that millions of Americans disagree with him. The problem with him expressing them is the appearance that they influence his decisions, as could his appearance at a conference sponsored by the Religious Liberty Institute at Notre Dame. The article notes that "The institute or its faculty members have filed amicus briefs in at least five Supreme Court cases on religious freedom issues."

Alito the man had a good week, I guess, for finding a place where his beliefs are widely accepted. Alito the justice? Bad week. As with the other justices, the less time they spend before partisan groups espousing their beliefs, the better.

Andrew Yang, former presidential and NYC mayoral candidate, has officially formed a third party - the Forward Party - with two Republicans: David Jolly, a former Florida congressman, and Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey. 

The linked New York Magazine article notes the Forward Party relies on polls showing dissatisfaction with the current situation in the US, and "showing that “roughly half” of Americans would call themselves independents." Using That Guy from Vermont as an example, the author points out how labels mean different things to different people. 

And, while support for a third party is high, according to Gallup, "that doesn’t mean that many people will actually join one.

Yang, Jolly, and Whitman have their work cut out for them. I'll give them a mixed week - they're trying, and people are talking about them, even if what's being said is not all good. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is having a bad week. There's her husband's stock activity, and there's her Asian trip, and a potential visit to Taiwan, which is causing agita on both sides of the Pacific.

But instead of treating the trip like a regular one-off congressional visit... which usually prompts a sternly worded letter from the Chinese Embassy, China has responded to the potential of Pelosi visiting the island by repeatedly upbraiding American counterparts, leaving the Biden administration wondering if Beijing is serious about provoking another crisis in the Taiwan Strait over the speaker’s arrival. 

Stateside, she's "left President Joe Biden's team in a no-win situation - even if it doesn't prompt a serious crisis." Even some Dems are questioning it, as are Republicans.

To the degree that it’s not exactly in America’s interest to drive a crisis right now, then that probably wasn’t particularly well chosen.

To me, it's a mess of her own making, and completely unnecessary for her, and for us.

Will Smith made a video. You can decide for yourself how this is helpful, and to whom.

Donald Trump had a bad week, for two reasons. 

First, he stuck his bone spurs in it with comments about 9/11. Trump's hosting the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour at his Bedminster, NJ course, which is not all that far from the site of the former World Trade Center. Families of 9/11 victims condemned his hosting the tourney in a letter which told of their "extreme pain, frustration, and anger," and quoted Trump's own words from 2016:

 … Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis – it was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents. We ought to get Bush or somebody to have the documents opened because frankly, if you open the documents, I think you are going to see it was Saudi Arabia … 

But what's he saying now, when he's got the world's attention (and plenty of Saudi money flowing to his business)?

Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have, as to the maniacs that did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to the world, so nobody’s really been there. But I can tell you there are a lot of really great people that are out here today and we’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re going to celebrate.

Staying with the tournament, it seems Bedminster is again using the Presidential Seal "on various items, including golf carts," despite previous complaints, and despite a law against using it this way.

Federal law prohibits knowingly using the printed or other likeness of the presidential seal “for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States.”   

Given the previous complaints, it seems "the Trump Bedminster golf course is aware of, or  should be, that using the seal is illegal, but is using it anyway."  What a surprise.

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday 4/13/22

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Do you think, if people ever got their heads out of Hunter Biden's laptop, they might wonder how on earth Jared Kushner managed to get his hands on $2,000,000,000 of sovereign money from Saudi Arabia for his new private equity fund, called Affinity Partners?

Do you think wonder how Kushner got the investment, against the better judgment of the panel that screens investment opportunities for the Saudi billions, and why that panel was overruled by Jared's WhatsApp messaging friend, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, given these issues:

the "inexperience of the Affinity Fund management"; the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk”; due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations that found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; a proposed asset management fee that “seems excessive”; and “public relations risks” from Mr. Kushner’s prior role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former President Donald J. Trump...

I wonder if any of them ever think about why they're so quick to find fault with inexperienced, unqualified oh-what-a-jerk-he-is Hunter Biden currying favor with other countries while his father was a senator or even when he was vice president, and don't give a MAGA-hat's worth of crap about what Jared is doing now? And may have done before, in his role as an official representative of the United States? 

I wonder why the jerks who get in fights on airplanes because oh-the-horror-they-have-to-wear-a-mask don't just pack their families and their freedom into the SUV and drive to wherever the heck they want to be, instead of getting on a plane in the first place?

I wonder if Mark Meadows regrets saying his official residence was a rusty trailer on Scaly Mountain? He's been removed from the voter rolls in NC, the state where "his" trailer lives, while an investigation is conducted into potential voter fraud. Or, if he at least regrets the 'Scaly Mountain' part?

Lauren Boebert, who represents a couple of people somewhere, I guess, wondered out loud about the recent election in France.

The socialist nation of France held elections today.

In that election there was no mail-in voting, early voting, or use of voting machines.

There was a mandatory proof of ID to vote.

Why can’t we get that basic election security here?

I wonder if she's figured out yet that we can't do here what they do there, because (a) we're not a socialist nation, (b) we don't have one set of election rules that everyone must follow, (c) we don't have automatic voter registration, and (d) she doesn't want us to be or have any of those things?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused illegal immigrants to Fox News in Washington DC so their 'coming to America' moment could be memorialized for eternity. He also set up state inspections of commercial vehicles crossing the Texas/Mexico border through legal checkpoints in another stunt to draw attention to the border, immigration, and how effective he is as governor, or something. 

He's so effective, he's causing his own set of supply chain issues, much to the dismay of truckers, the Customs and Border Protection folks, the Mexican government and, you know, consumers everywhere. 

Oh - did I mention the truckers blocking the Mexican side, in protest of Abbott's initiative? I wonder if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Cancun) will go visit the truckers and share their 'Freedom from Stupid Texas Mandates' message with right-wing media outlets? Or was that only good for his home country of Canada?

What are you wondering about tonight?

Sunday School 3/28/21

I'm going to spend our Sunday School time in just one classroom - CNN's State of the Union, where Dana Bash shared her pre-recorded exclusive interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Blinken did his best to answer as broadly and as collectively as possible, compared to Rex Tillerson or the horrid, condescending liar, Mike Pompeo. 

Here's some of what we learned from Blinken.

• China doesn't really fit under one label, given that "there are clearly and increasingly adversarial aspects of the relationship ...there are certainly competitive ones...there are still some cooperative ones." He says we have to approach them from a position of strength, no matter which aspect of the relationship we're talking about. And, we have to bring our allies along - we're stronger together.

• On the pandemic, he said we need to be able to mitigate something like this much better in the future, and we need transparency from the WHO among other things. And, "China, like every other country, has real obligations that it needs to make good on."  As to punishment or repercussions for their behavior to date, Blinken says we need "both accountability for the past, but our focus needs to be on building a stronger system for the future."

• There will be consequences for Russia on the variety of aggressions they've perpetrated on us, including election interference, bounties on our troops, and the attacks on our computers, and NATO shares our concern with Russia's actions across the board. Everything "really starts with being clear-eyed about the challenge Russia poses and addressing the challenge together." 

• On Afghanistan, we're still working on the troop withdrawal timeline, and he said there are more European troops there than there are Americans. They've been with us on this from the beginning, when "the one and only time NATO's Article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all, has been evoked" was 9/11. So, we're telling them what we're thinking, but we're also listening to them. And yes, Biden will keep his promise to "end forever wars" but diplomacy is a part of that, too - and there's an upcoming conference in Turkey on that effort. 

• There was a lot of talk about MBS, the Saudi Crown Prince, and whether we should call him a murderer. In the end, Blinken said " The crown prince is likely to be the leader of Saudi Arabia far into the future" and that we have to work with them on some critical stuff, including ending the war in Yemen, which he called "probably the worse humanitarian crisis in the world." And he asked, "in terms of advancing human rights and progress in Saudi Arabia itself, are we better off recalibrating the relationship, as we did, or rupturing it?" He's confident the recalibration was necessary. 

Blinken made it clear we are not "America alone;" if the Biden foreign policy had a theme song, it would be "We Are the World."

I'll have more from the classrooms in tomorrow's Extra Credit. See you around campus.

Wondering on Wednesday 12/23/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

There's so much wondering in my head today. For example:

Who will be in the next round of pardons, clemencies and commutations? 

Why is the United States considering offering immunity to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi royal who's such a good What's App friend of Jared Kushner, for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?

Who will be the next target that the president will attack, now that he's gone after the #2 Republican in the Senate? Any guesses?

Why are people all of the sudden worried about foreign policy? Why haven't they been complaining all along? And why are reporters and politicians lying about it?

Why did the president decide, suddenly, to be interested in the pandemic spending bill once it had been approved, after not paying attention - for months?

If you don't put out cookies for Santa Claus, does he get free returns on your stuff? And does he keep all those receipts? 

How many Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons do you think they get at the North Pole, anyway? And, of course, while I'm typing this, a BB&B coupon landed in my inbox... 

We've been listening to our collection of Christmas CDs (we're old - we don't stream) and my husband said that the "Mayhem Steamroller" tunes would be coming up soon... and can't you just picture THAT Allstate commercial? 

How do we get out of the mess, all of this stuff I posted yesterday?

Why are people STILL so concerned about the House Speaker's ice cream habit? And why do people think that she could fund the stimulus with it? And am I a bad person for buying craft ice cream myself?

How many people will follow the applicable COVID restrictions where they live? How many of the three million+ people who've moved through TSA airport screening checkpoints around the country are going to quarantine when they get off the plane? 

How much does Dr. Deborah Birx regret travelling with multiple generations of her family?

News is breaking that the president has vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, the $740B military spending plan, mostly (he's said in the past) because it allows for renaming military bases, and because it doesn't remove protections for Twitter and Facebook, which have aggressively labelled his posts as fake news - and, really on both, what do they have to do with the military? 

How long will it take for his veto to be over-ridden? Probably not long.  And does Trump know he's the first to not sign the bill in nearly sixty years? And does he consider being the first another notch in his #winning  hair spray bottle? 

Should pandemic-denying Republican members of the House and Senate be getting the vaccine ahead of front line health care providers, the elderly, essential workers, and folks of all ages with pre-existing conditions? Are they really that much more valuable or that much more worthy of the protections than, say, my 90-year-old-with-a-heart-condition Mom?

What are you wondering about?

Sunday School Extra Credit 12/8/19

As promised in yesterday's Sunday School post, here's a recap of NJ Senator Cory Booker's conversation with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. Booker was the only one of the 2020 Dem presidential candidates making the classroom rounds yesterday.

They started their conversation on Kamala Harris dropping out of the race, with George wondering if Booker could "unpack" his comment about the system not being fair, noting that Harris had

started out with a bang, had 20,000 people at her first rally, raising an awful lot of money early on, performed pretty well in the early debates and only fell back when she stumbled in the campaign.

In response, Booker offered a comparison between Harris and former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has announced his endorsement of former VP Joe Biden.  Kerry followed a very similar path to Harris during his campaign: he pulled out of every state, poured all his resources into Iowa, he had issues in his campaign, he was polling at 4% -- just like Harris.  But then, he loaned his campaign $5M - something Harris couldn't do.

And so, the Democratic Party which makes a right critique that this -- we should be stopping the influence of big money in politics, that Kamala Harris stopped her campaign because of the campaign finance rules and the fact that she couldn't do what we see billionaires doing in this race, which is flooding ads to jack up their poll numbers and get in.

George noted that Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren - they're not wealthy and they're still in the race, and billionaires may be spending, he suggested, but look at Tom Steyer, who's "pretty far back right now."  Booker argued that "Iowa voters should have the right to choose" and they also defy polls "just about every time."

Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter -- Barack Obama around this time was about 20 points behind Hillary Clinton. But Iowa voters where you have to come out here and actually meet folks, you see people who are polling at low numbers end up finishing first. It wasn't just John Kerry that year, John Edwards was polling at 2 percent and number seven and he finished number two in Iowa. So, I’m just at the point, at this point in the campaign, let Iowa voters decide. It goes to the same issue with the debate right now.

And he turned the discussion to his own campaign, and "the system" - requirements for both polling results and individual donors - is hurting him.

You know, we're running a campaign where in Iowa and New Hampshire, we're in the top in endorsements. We have literally one of the top net favorabilities in the race. We're called by local media here in Iowa as one of the top field organizations and they've even -- you had press people coming out in Iowa and saying this is ridiculous. If the pollsters call you, choose Cory Booker because he should be on that debate stage.

So, we’ve been excited. You know, over the last -- since last debate, we've been experiencing our biggest surge in online donations. We have tons of people coming out just yesterday, more elected officials endorsing my campaign and are frustrated that we are putting artificial barriers which often could be overcome by people with money determining who Iowa gets to choose from.

Something is wrong with the system.

George wondered about strategy, especially since Booker will have to be present in the Senate for a likely impeachment trial, and since it looks like, barring some really good polls, Booker will be shut out of the December debate.

Booker said he's going to keep running his campaign, "like a lot of candidates have done in the past that were discounted by national media and press." He expressed gratitude to folks who have been donating and "helping us to overcome a lot of these artificial barriers." He also noted

And as far as being a United States senator, I take my oath very seriously, even if the president's going to violate his. I'm going to be in the Senate and do my job and trust that, here in Iowa, we're going to continue to build on this momentum we're feeling right now. And I'm really grateful that, at this moment in our campaign, we're breaking records in our campaign, because Americans are saying, your voice is important in this race, and we're going to do everything we can to keep you there, because our online small-dollar contributions are going up. And I hope that Americans will continue to support us in this last sprint to Iowa.

Moving to the impeachment inquiry, George asked whether Booker thought Rudy Giuliani should testify, "especially in the wake of his trip to Ukraine this week" and asked if he has a reaction to president Trump's saying that he expects some kind of report from Rudy as a result of his efforts.

Look, this -- this is just a disappointing chapter in American history -- that a president's private lawyer should also be engaging in -- with the president's consent, in foreign policy interference.

And what's going on right now is just unacceptable to anybody who's going to be a fair observer of fact. And the fact that we can't get to the truth of this matter, because Giuliani is not willing to testify, and the president of the United States is holding back witnesses that could give the American people insights into the true breadth and depth of this corruption, is just -- should be frustrating to everyone.

Finally, they talked briefly about the shooting in Pensacola and whether anything should be done, maybe a review, of our relationship with Saudi Arabia. Booker said the US-Saudi relationship is "unacceptable" and cited examples, including of course the "outrageous killing" of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi.

This is a relationship that has serious problems. And the fact that this president seems, in a very transactional way, doubling down on the relationship, and telling us it's because of just financial interests, is unacceptable. America is best when we lead with our values in a resolute manner. And this is a relationship that needs more than just an examination. In the Senate, we came together in a bipartisan way to rebuke what -- some of the things we have been doing with the Saudis, like the engagement in Yemen. It's unacceptable. And, as president of the United States, I will change it. We will lead with our values again.

That's where they left things, and where I'll leave things as well.

See you around campus.

And please, consider going to corybooker.com or yang2020.com and donating for diversity on the debate stage.

Sunday School 6/23/19

Yep, I'm going there: one of my least favorite talking heads, and my least favorite squawk box: Chuck Todd and president Trump on Meet the Press. The interview was taped Friday morning and aired today.

Here are some highlights.

They talked about Trump's decision not to go ahead with an attack on Iran, it being a disproportionate response to kill 150 or so Iranians in retaliation for the shooting down of an unmanned drone. Trump indicated that he has 'ready-made plans', and said

Oh, I have so many targets, you wouldn't believe. We have targets all over.

Todd asked if Trump thought the Iranians were trying to provoke him into a military response.

No, their economy is shattered. Shattered. Their inflation is through the room. They've never had, the highest in the world right now. Worse than any place. They're not living well. 

On the border, Todd wondered if Trump was frustrated because his border numbers were worse than Obama's.

 No, because the people are coming up because our economy is so good. They're pouring up because the economy is so good. Obama had a lousy economy. It was a dead economy.

Huh.  All this time, I thought it was rapists and murderers and drug dealers and sex traffickers who were coming here, not people looking to take part if our awesome economy.  I seem to have been misled by someone, someone in the White House, I believe it was...

On Obama's jobs record and Trump's jobs record (hint: Obama's is better), here's Trump's explanation.

That's because he started of with a, with such a bad base. I mean, he hit - but Chuck, you have to understand, nobody was working. The whole place was a disaster. And I don't - I'd never take that away. But it's very easy because when that turned around they pumped a tremendous amount of money into the economy. He also had a Federal Reserve person who kept the interest rates low. I don't. I don't have that privilege.

But wait -- didn't we pump trillions or scadzillions of dollars worth of tax cuts for corporations and wealthy people into the economy? And didn't that trickle down to the average Joe, just like they said it would?  Yeah, no.

Trump's biggest mistake, the one thing he'd like a do-over on, if he could have one?

I would say if I had one to do over, it would be, I would not have appointed Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General. That would be my one.  Yeah, that was my biggest mistake.

On family separation at the border, that was Obama's fault and Trump ended it. Or something. But it was Obama's fault. This part of the interview was mostly Todd telling Trump to "do something" over and over and over. Eventually. coming back to 2019 and his administration, it's still the Democrats' fault that children don't have toothbrushes.

On impeachment, it's a crap shoot.

I think I win the election easier. But, you know, I'm not sure that I like having it. Look, I did nothing wrong. I was spied on. What they did to me was illegal. It was illegal on the other side. I did nothing wrong. So impeachment's a very unfair thing because nothing that I did was wrong. And if you look at the Mueller report, there was no collusion. This was all about collusion. This was about conspiracy.Use the word collusion. Use the word conspiracy. 

I'll be honest with you, nobody even mentions Russia anymore since the Mueller report. They don't mention it, in all fairness. Nobody mentions Russia anymore. And it was about Russia. It was a hoax. 

On losing the popular vote in 2016,

Well, I think it was a -- I mean, I'll say something that, again, is controversial. There were a lot of votes cast that I don't believe. I look at California... Take a look at Judicial Watch, take a look at their settlement where California admitted to a million votes. They admitted to a million votes.

Todd asked, "a million votes of what?"

Take a look at Judicial-- Judicial Watch made a settlement, there was much, there was much - there was much illegal voting. But let me tell you about the popular vote. Do you have a second?

Oh for Pete's sake, he is SUCH a liar!  The Judicial Watch settlement was about inactive voters being on the rolls, not about illegal votes. Similar settlements have been reached with Ohio (a red state) and Kentucky (another red state). Many states to not aggressively remove people from the rolls if they fail to vote. And even in the case of the California settlement, voters have two more federal elections in which to fail to vote before they'll be removed from the rolls. And nothing in the settlement suggests that any of the inactive voters, including the dead ones, actually voted. This, my friends, it a complete line of crap that Chuck Todd basically let him get away with.

Finally, on Saudi Arabia, Trump says in a nutshell their money's worth it. 

They buy a massive amount, $150B worth of military equipment that, by the way, we use. We use that military equipment. So Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of America product. That means something to me. It's a big producer of jobs.

On having the FBI investigate the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and involvement of the Crown Prince in that.

Well, I think it's  - I think it's been heavily investigated. By everybody. I mean, I've seen so many different reports... Here's where I am, are you ready? 

Iran's killed many, many people a day. Other countries in the Middle East, this is a hostile place. This is a vicious, hostile place. If you're going to look at Saudi Arabia, look at Iran, look at other countries, I won't mention names, and take a look at what's happening. And they you go outside of the Middle East and you take a look at what's happening with countries. Okay?

And I only say they spend $400 to $450B over a period of time - all money, all jobs, buying equipment... I'm not a fool that says "we don't want to do business with them" And by the way, if they don't do business with us, you know what they do? They'll do business with the Russians or with the Chinese. They will buy - we make the best equipment in the world, but they will buy great equipment from Russia and China. 

Chuck. Take their money. Take their money, Chuck. 

Take their money. And, don't forget, have them take our money too, since we're having them help build some of our more strategic weapons systems.

See you around campus.

Sunday School 10/14/18

One classroom only again today -- this time, it's Jake Tapper and the gang on CNN's State of the Union, which Tapper said was "in crisis."

Part of that crisis is Hurricane Michael, the strongest storm to hit the mainland US in a quarter century; the other is the alleged murder of WaPo columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2nd. It is believed that he was murdered that day, by the Saudis, but there is no confirmation yet of that, even though Turkish authorities say they have audio and video proof. The president noted that we are investigating this seriously and there will be serious consequences if the allegations are true.

Tapper talked with Marco Rubio about both Michael and Khashoggi. On the storm, Rubio indicated that things obviously are difficult but that he's not been asked to intervene to make sure the federal government is doing for Florida what it needs to. He did remind everyone that there are lots of folks in rural inland areas where the folks might be completely cut off and in dire need, so he's keeping his focus on those parts of the state.

The discussion turned to the impact of climate change on these storms:

The Union of Concerned Scientists said Florida could lose more than one million homes by the end of the century due to rising sea levels because of climate change, which they say is man made. What do you say to constituents who..ask, why are you not one of the leaders in Congress on this issue?

Rubio begged to differ.

Well, I would say that that's not true. We are. We - for example, we have funded this study in Congress that I have pushed for to better understand exactly what you have just said, primarily on the Atlantic side. Sea level rise and changes in the climate...I don't think there's a debate about whether that is happening, because you can measure that. The secondary aspect is, how much of that is due to human activity? And from a  policy-maker, the question is, what policies can we change to deal with that human activity?

Rubio indicated that he's pushed to get some kind of mitigation in place,

primarily because the insurance marketplace is going to start...pricing this in. So we better have answers on places like Miami Beach here in South Florida and the like. The second question about how much is human activity contributing towards that, what percentage of that is due to human activity, and the third question, what laws can we change, that's the more complicated one, especially the third one, because some of the things they're asking for is already happening. If you look at the US today, we're cleaner than we used to be. Natural gas is a clean source. Nuclear energy  is very clean. But you have to fight the same people to approve of that. 

Tapper asked if Rubio thought climate change was man-made, or at least in part man-made.

Yes, look, scientists are saying that humanity and it's behavior is contributing towards that. I can't tell you what percentage of that is due to human activity. And I think many scientists would debate the percentage of what is attributable to man vs. normal fluctuations. But that there's actually a rise in sea level, that temperatures are warmer in the water than they were 50, 80, 100-some years ago, that's measurable. There's no - I don't think there is (an) honest debate about that. The core response to me, though, is what can we do about it?

Then, Tapper asked

And in 20 years, are you going to be able to say to your children and my children, these are the three or four things I pushed for in Congress to help mitigate this factor? 

Rubio answered confidently. Sort of. 

Sure. Well, certainly, mitigating sea level rise, because no matter what we do -- no matter what we do with laws -- if, tomorrow, we stopped all carbon -- let's say we went to all solar panels and did all that stuff, which is not realistic, there would still be - this still - this trend would still continue. And so we're going to have to do something about the impact that it's having on low-level coastal areas. And that means mitigation, hardening, lifting - how we manage water. We're all over that. We have been working on that very hard and continue to, strategies to mitigate against those factors that are going to be in place no matter what happens with our energy policy.

But I'm also not going to destroy our economy. There's a reality here and there's a balance on that end of it that we need to be focused on.

That's quite a #MAGA thing right there, putting "the economy" first, wouldn't you agree?

And no explanation for the comment. Was he talking about the tourist economy? The snowbird economy? The oil, gas and coal industries? The construction industry, which rebuilds coastal communities in the same place, over and over and over again, with a ton of taxpayer dollars in the mix?

On Khashoggi, Rubio was clear and consistent. America needs to take some kind of action against the Saudis if the allegations are true.

...there needs to be a strong response if, in fact, this proves to be true. If they lured this man into that consulate, they went medieval on him, and he was killed and he was chopped up and they sent a death crew down there to kill him and do all this, that would be an outrage. 

I don't think we should continue as 'business as usual' (with the Saudis) until we know exactly what happened here, because what we do know is this: he walked into that consulate, and he never came out.

So the only two things that could have happened is, he's alive and somehow still in there, or he's dead and the Saudis are the ones who did it. There's no other explanation for it, because there was video of him leaving, they would have shown it by now. 

But here's the bottom line. I believe the Trump administration will do something. The president has said that. but, if he doesn't, Congress will. That, I can tell you with 100% certainty. With almost full unanimity, across the board, Republicans and Democrats, there will be a very strong congressional response if, in fact, the Saudis lured him into that consulate, murdered him, cut up his body and disposed of it. 

There is going to be a very strong congressional response.  

Let's hope the serious investigation happens quickly - dare I say 'Kavanaugh quickly'? - and that our response is what this situation demands.

See you around campus.

OrangeVerse XXXI: Equipment and Other Things

The president had a couple of opportunities (before a bilateral meeting, and before a presumably bilateral luncheon) to talk about wealth-sharing with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.  The Crown Prince is here to celebrate big arms deals and stuff like that.  And, of course, for the poetry slam.

Thank

you 

every

body.

 It's a 

great 

honor to 

have the 

Crown Prince 

with us. Saudi 

Arabia has been a very 

great friend and a big 

purchaser of equipment

and lots of other things. 

And one of the biggest

investments in the United 

States is their - I guess it's

your big investment - is 

buying stock in companies 

and various other things

in the United States and creating 

jobs.We've become very good friends 

over a fairly short period of time. I was 

in Saudi Arabia in May. And we are bring-

ing back hundreds of billions of dollars

into the United States. And we understand

that, and they understand that. Some of the

things that - have been approved and are cu-

rently under construction and will be deliver

-ed to Saudi Arabia very soon, and that's for 

their protection. But if you look in terms of

dollars, $3 billion, $533 million, $525 million -

that's peanuts for you. You should have increased

it $880 million, $645 million, $6 billion - that's

for frigates; $889 million, $63 million - and that's 

for various artillery. Some of the things that we're

now working on and that have been ordered and

will shortly be started in construction and delivered:

the THAAD system - $13 billion; the C-130 airplanes

the Hercules, great plan - $3.8 billion; the Bradley

vehicles - that's the tanks - $1.2 billion; and the P-8

Poseidons - $1.4 billion and what it does is it really

means many, many jobs. We're talking about over

40,000 jobs in the United States. So we make the

best equipment in the world. There's nobody even

close and Saudi Arabia is buying a lot of this equip-

ment and a lot of people are at work making the e-

quipment, no only for us - because we are, as you

know, we're getting a $700 billion military propo-

sal. And that's even a lot for you guys. But we're

getting a $700 billion military plan this year and

716 will be next year - $716 billion. So we really

have a great friendship, a great relationship. I

would really have to say the relationship was

to put it mildly, very, very strained during the

Obama administration. And the relationship now

is probably as good as it's really ever been and I

think will probably only get better. Tremendous

investments made in our country. And that means

jobs for our workers, jobs for our people. Also 

defense. We're talking about defense and we're 

working very hard with Saudi Arabia. And they

're also footing a big part of the bill for defense

- the whole Middle East. And we know what's

happened in the Middle East. And it has not 

been a pretty picture for the United States or

for anybody. And a lot of things are changing,

and they're changing very rapidly. As you know

ISIS is now - we've recaptured almost 100 percent

of the territory, as you probably have heard before

anybody. But we've captured close to 100 percent

of the territory held by ISIS. We've moved very

rapidly, very quickly. And that's really coming

to an end in that part of the world - it's coming

to an end. And we'll be able to get out of certain

areas that we've wanted to get out of for a long

period of time. And other countries can handle it.

At this point, they'll be able to handle it.

So it's a great honor to have your and

your representatives here Crown Prince -

thank you very much. Thank you for

being here. Thank you, Mr. President.

Actually the relations between Saudi

Arabia and the United States of America,

it's old relation. We are the oldest ally for

the United States of America in the Middle East.

More than 80 years of alliance and big interest - 

politically, economically, and security, in dif-

fierent area - a lot of area. And the foundation

for relation, it's really huge and really deep. It's an
honor to have the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia with us

and his representatives, many of whom I know and I met 
in May when we were over there, where a promise of $400 
billion was made by Saudi Arabia for the purchase of our eq
uipment and other things.And the relationship is probably the 
strongest it's ever been. We understand each other Saudi Arabia 
is a very wealthy nation and they are going to give the United States 
some of that wealth, hopefully in the form of jobs, in the form of the 
purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world. 
There's nobody even close.